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War On Extremism: Anonymous May Be Joining War

11/01/15 17:38

Anonymous (wiki), the infamous hacker group (depending on which side of the issue you fall on) directed it attention against Islamic extremists in light of the killing of French journalists at Charlie Hebdo. A French jihadist website for the extremist currently directs to a search engine, Duck Duck Go.

Traditionally, the hacker group has directed its attention against governments and agencies through the world. Defacing websites and launching denial-of-services are common cyberattacks favored by the hacker group, which has no centralized structure of leadership.

It remains to be seen just how extensive this new cyberwar front is going to be. It’s likely the main Anonymous group has yet to involve itself in the hack itself since its main Twitter account, @youranonnews (Twitter) has made no mention of the hack though there was one retweet of the Paris march with world leaders showing solidarity against extremism (Yahoo).

In general, social media from Facebook to Twitter has lit up since news of the killing of French journalists, policemen, and hostages over at Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent man hunt.

It’s a good PR move for the hackers with much of the public still unsure about their intent and the means used to achieve their goals. In a quick survey of comments regarding this attack, most have come out in favor of this action and a few wondered just how effective taking down a website for a few hours will really achieve in the long-term.